DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Backhaul via RF limits you to half duplex and trying to put the AP network on the same channels eats more bandwidth. Getting 500 Mbps from RF is possible but a lot of things have to go right and Gbps or higher it's pretty much got to be a perfect RF environment.
That's where triband comes into play. Those TP-Link devices aren't really triband but three channels, so it will backhaul on a 5 GHz channel that's different from the 5 GHz it will offer to clients. But the backhaul could be one your neighbor uses for something, so it's not necessarily ideal. It just avoids your own network overlapping.
WiFi6E or WiFi7 have an advantage since they can do the backhaul on 6 GHz channels so the main 2.4 and 5 GHz channels aren't overlapping with client devices. There's not many devices that will ask for end access point connections on 6 GHz so it's got less interference for now. Computers and phone capable of using 6 GHz just started showing up in last couple of years so WiFi6E routers using it for backhaul had it pretty much exclusively since 2020.
Eventually a neighbor will get a 6E or 7 mesh and then you're back to square one. Pulling copper for a backhaul and to have available for clients likely to need reliability or speed, like NAS or media or something you want not to drop or needs low latency, will always have a benefit over a wireless connection. Although WiFi7/802.11be sort of blurs where copper, fiber and RF meet.
I doubt Centurylink is selling very technically advanced devices. They probably do backhaul (WDS) and access points on a shared 5 GHz channel, which is why they struggle. You can do that but it's best to split backhaul and AP duty.
Commercial and telecom do RF backhaul all the time but the link has a dedicated channel and directional antennas. Different requirements than access points that want to hunt for low noise channels and use omni directional antennas.
That's where triband comes into play. Those TP-Link devices aren't really triband but three channels, so it will backhaul on a 5 GHz channel that's different from the 5 GHz it will offer to clients. But the backhaul could be one your neighbor uses for something, so it's not necessarily ideal. It just avoids your own network overlapping.
WiFi6E or WiFi7 have an advantage since they can do the backhaul on 6 GHz channels so the main 2.4 and 5 GHz channels aren't overlapping with client devices. There's not many devices that will ask for end access point connections on 6 GHz so it's got less interference for now. Computers and phone capable of using 6 GHz just started showing up in last couple of years so WiFi6E routers using it for backhaul had it pretty much exclusively since 2020.
Eventually a neighbor will get a 6E or 7 mesh and then you're back to square one. Pulling copper for a backhaul and to have available for clients likely to need reliability or speed, like NAS or media or something you want not to drop or needs low latency, will always have a benefit over a wireless connection. Although WiFi7/802.11be sort of blurs where copper, fiber and RF meet.
I doubt Centurylink is selling very technically advanced devices. They probably do backhaul (WDS) and access points on a shared 5 GHz channel, which is why they struggle. You can do that but it's best to split backhaul and AP duty.
Commercial and telecom do RF backhaul all the time but the link has a dedicated channel and directional antennas. Different requirements than access points that want to hunt for low noise channels and use omni directional antennas.
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